These verbs all mean to arouse extreme displeasure, and usually antagonism, in a person or animal. Enrage means to throw into a rage ?in other words, to put someone in such a state of frustration, anger or annoyance that he is beside himself and may react compulsively or violently. Enrage always implies strong provocation: to enrage a wounded bull by taunting him with a cape; he was enraged by the policeman’s rough treatment of his wife.

Anger , a more general term, may apply to mild as well as severe displeasure: What angered him most was the lack of writing paper in his hotel room. Anger is often used as a participle to describe one’s disposition: a diplomat not easily angered or flustered; He was always capable of being angered by trifles.

Incense means literally to set on fire, and thus emphasizes the volatility and heat of anger . It need not, however, imply a long-standing or profound feeling, only one of great intensity: The mayor, incensed over the filthy condition of the hallways of the slum building he was inspecting, ordered an immediate investigation. Incense often implies sharp indignation resulting from a slight or incivility: He was incensed by the curt refusal of the headwaiter to seat him at the table of his choice.

Infuriate is the strongest term of this group, implying a reaction so intense that one virtually loses control of one’s actions. That which infuriates is felt to be unbearably offensive.

• While the display of luxury by the French aristocracy of the eighteenth century incensed the poor of Paris; Marie Antoinette’s suggestion that they eat cake when they had no bread positively infuriated them.

Infuriate is often used hyperbolically in less formal contexts to indicate any degree of anger: She was simply infuriated by her husband’s nasty remark about her new dress.